Disability Benefits

Mr. Boswell:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what studies he is conducting into new systems for assessing entitlement to disability living allowance and attendance allowance. [14367]

Maria Eagle [holding answer 13 November 2001]: We are currently conducting a small-scale test to ascertain whether it might be viable to continue development of a possible new system, known as "Activities for Managing Life" (AMLs), for gathering information about the care and mobility needs of severely disabled people who claim DLA and AA, and for assessing their entitlement to those benefits.

Fair Trade Goods

Mr. Weir:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what his Department's policy is in relation to departmental spending for supplies concerning the purchase of fair trade goods. [15219]

Mr. Nicholas Brown:
I refer the hon. Member to the answer my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State for International Development gave to him on 16 November 2001, Official Report, column 931W.

Benefit Eligibility

Annabelle Ewing:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will list the procedural steps for assessing eligibility, reviewing, appealing and making payment of (a) severe disablement allowance, (b) maternity allowance, (c) industrial injuries disablement allowance, (d) reduced earnings allowance/retirement allowance, (e) attendance allowance and (f) disability working allowance, indicating which of the offices of his Department and his agencies in Scotland handle each of these steps. [12194]

Maria Eagle [holding answer 2 November 2001]: This is a matter for Alexis Cleveland, Chief Executive of the Benefits Agency. She will write to the hon. Member.

The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions has asked me to respond to your recent Parliamentary Question asking if he will list the procedural steps for assessing eligibility, reviewing, appealing and making payment of (a) severe disablement allowance (b) maternity allowance (c) industrial injuries disablement allowance (d) reduced earnings allowance/retirement allowance (e) attendance allowance and (f) disability working allowance, indicating which of the offices of his Department and his agencies in Scotland handle each of these steps.

Information is not available about Disability Working Allowance as this was replaced by the Disabled Person's Tax Credit in October 1999, and is now administered by the Inland Revenue. Details of eligibility and payments for the other benefits listed have been placed in the House of Commons Library.

The revision and appeals process is the same for all benefits. When an appeal is received in the Benefits Agency (BA), the Decision Maker considers whether there are any new grounds raised that would enable the decision to be revised. If not, a written submission is prepared and it and copies of the evidence are sent to The Appeals Service. At the same time a copy of the submission and the evidence is sent to the appellant and any known representative. The appellant is also sent a pre-hearing enquiry form to complete and return to the Appeals Service to indicate whether he/she wants his/her appeal to be dealt with by an oral or paper hearing.

On receipt of the appeal submission and documents, the appeal is registered by the Appeals Service. When the pre-hearing enquiry form is received from the appellant, the appropriate type of hearing is arranged. Where an oral hearing has been requested, the panel

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member(s) who will form the appeal tribunal are allocated according to type of appeal and all interested parties (appellant, representative and BA) are notified of the date, time and place of the hearing.

The panel members who form the appeal tribunal are independent of the Department for Work and Pensions and are appointed by the Lord Chancellor. When they have made their decision, all interested parties are notified. If the appeal tribunal finds in the appellant's favour, the BA is then responsible for implementing the tribunal's decision.

I hope this is helpful.

Jobcentre Plus

Mr. Willetts:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many Jobcentre Plus pathfinder offices have been subjected to, or threatened with, industrial action; for what reasons industrial action has been taken; and what measures he is taking to resolve this industrial action. [7897]

Mr. Nicholas Brown:
49 pathfinders opened as planned on Monday 22 October and staff are enthusiastically providing a full service. In the areas balloted by PCS two-thirds of staff are working. The dispute is over the delivery of welfare benefits to people of working age in a predominantly unscreened environment.

Jobcentre Plus will introduce a radical improvement to customer service based on Personal Advisers working closely with individuals to help them into jobs and to secure the right financial support. This cannot be achieved from behind screens.

The Department remains in discussion with the Public and Commercial Services Union to seek to resolve this dispute in a way which is compatible with the Government's objectives for delivering a modern, personalised and work-focused service in Jobcentre Plus. We are putting in place contingency arrangements to ensure that claimants can continue to receive their benefit.

Pension Awareness Campaign

Mr. Willetts:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions for what reason the pension awareness advertising campaign was (a) stopped and (b) restarted. [7902]

Mr. McCartney:
Advertising is just one element of the pensions education campaign. This is an on-going campaign which runs constantly throughout the year through a wide variety of channels. Advertising appears at various intervals during the campaign and is planned to run during periods when it will be most effective.

Stakeholder Pensions

Mr. Willetts:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, (1) pursuant to his answer of 28 June 2001, Official Report, column 158W, when figures showing the number of people who have bought a stakeholder pension each month will be available; and what proportion of these pensions have been bought on behalf of someone else; [7915]

(2) how many people have taken out stakeholder pensions in each month since April. [7918]

Mr. McCartney:
The information is not available in the format requested. The information available is shown in the table.

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Period

Number of stakeholder pension policies sold

AprilJune 2001

224,506

July 2001 August 2001

69,087 63,585

Note:

Figures shown are provided by the Association of British Insurers and are based on returns from registered stakeholder pension providers. Monthly figures for the AprilJune quarter are not available. Figures from July onwards are provided by the ABI through news releases on a monthly basis. (They are released approximately five weeks in arrears owing to the need for prior collection and analysis of data).

Jeff Ennis:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions by what means he plans to (a) monitor and (b) police employers, with 50 or fewer workers, who do not register to promote a stakeholder pension for their workforce. [11994]

Mr. McCartney:
I refer my hon. Friend to the Written Answer I gave the right hon. Member for Hitchin and Harpenden (Mr. Lilley) on 23 October 2001, Official Report, column 180W.

Industrial Injury Disablement Benefit

Dr. Gibson:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many applicants have successfully claimed industrial injury disablement benefit for prescribed disease for primary neoplasms of the epithetical lining of the urinary tract in each year since 1996; and how many of those (a) successful and (b) unsuccessful applicants were employed in the printing and related industries. [8624]

Malcolm Wicks:
The information is not available in the format requested. Such information as is available is in the table:

1. Figures are based on a 100 per cent. count and relate to assessments of disability over 14 per cent.

2. No information is collected on the number of unsuccessful claims.

3. As there have been fewer than five successful applications in each year by those employed in the printing and related industries, actual figures cannot be disclosed to protect the confidentiality of individuals.